Inflammation of tendons and joints is characteristic of many common ailments such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendinitis. The symptoms are often painful and debilitating. There are many currently-accepted treatments for these ailments, including prescription and non-prescription nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), oral and injectable steroid compositions, chemotherapeutics such as methotrexate, and injectable gold solutions, to name only a few. While such treatments often can reduce the inflammation accompanying the ailment, they typically also provoke unpleasant or unacceptable side-effects.
Additionally, there are several marketed over-the-counter topical rubs which are capable of making the area of the skin or muscle feel hot or cold. Those rubs, however, while generally harmless in terms of unwanted side-effects, can provide only temporary topical relief and cannot relieve the inflammation which is the source of the patient's discomfort. Thus, there remains a great need for alternative methods of treating such disorders.
Likewise, there remains a need for other methods of topically treating certain conditions such as (i) peripheral vascular disease; (ii) hair loss or hair thinning as the result of male pattern baldness, diet, or medical treatments, for example, radiation therapy or chemotherapy for treatment of cancer; (iii) excess fat from under skin; (iv) basal cell carcinoma, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis; (v) sebatious cysts and arthritic nodules; (vi) second and third degree burns without open wounds; (vii) third degree burns with open wounds and surgical wounds; and (viii) other various cancers, including breast cancer.
Heretofore, the foregoing conditions have been treated by medication, albeit in some instances with limited success. There remains, therefore, a need for additional methods for treating the foregoing conditions.